A good 24 hrs. Grey and cloudy but a great wind for running. Initially
the wind and sea state were risky for the spinnaker - gusting high 20's and
a confused following sea.
We eventually put the spinnaker up at 0200 this morning and have now been
running with 18/22kts of wind on the port quarter for the last 10 hours.
Some nice surfing at times!
Star Dancer has taken it in her stride so far. The autohelm drives her well
allowing us to tweak and watch for wind shifts - we have her sailing to a
wind angle (rather than a compass course) which is working well. The twin
rudders have lots of bite - thanks I think to having nothing heavy stowed
forward of the mast and no anchor/chain weighing the bows down. Stern is
well in the water and allows the rudders to have maximum effect - well thats
what we think!
Just before noon today the sun broke through - off came the midlayer
thermals and on with the shorts - but alas short lived and it is grey again.
Still it is much warmer - after all we are level with northern Spain.
Rob and Robert
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